Legal Action Against Movie Downloading - In an action similar to that of the RIAA against illegal downloaders of recorded music, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has begun lawsuits against John Does who they believe have pirated movies they have downloaded to their computer hard drives. They will subpoena those with the hard drives containing illegal material and the defendants may then be tried. About 200 suits are planned. At the same time the MPAA is trying to educate consumers about copyright and ways to buy or rent movies online. Websites Movielink and CinemaNow, who allow users to rent their movies by downloading them have not met with the success of Apples iPod/iTunes for music recordings. [And its not difficult to see why, considering the lengthy download times even with DSL or T1 connections!]

Silverline Records Releases 45 DualDiscs - Silverline Records division of 5.1 Entertainment Group has announced it is releasing a total of 45 of the new DualDiscs this month. The double-sided discs contain a standard CD (though not with the Red Book Compact Disc logo) on one side, and a DVD side which provides the full album in 5.1 DVD-Audio as well as Dolby Digital 5.1, plus special features including music videos, interviews, still photo galleries, concert footage, lyrics and web links. Among the artists in the initial release are Blondie, Robert Cray, Curtis Mayfield, Tay Mahal, Jane Monheit,Tipper, Bob Marley, Dar Williams, Eddie Money, and the London and Utah Symphonies.

Philips Launches Plug-In for SACD Creation - Philips has introduced a new SACD Creator Pack plug-in for the Digidesign Pro Tools Digital Audio Workstations on the Macintosh platform. The software converts 2, 5 or 6-channel PCM audio into the DSD files required for SACD mastering, making SACD creation an easy task for most studios and mastering houses using Macs. There is also a version for Windows-based PC platforms. SACD has won strong acclaim from both performing artists and audiophiles for its breakthrough sound quality and multichannel 5.1 surround options. Its DSD technology faithfully renders every nuance of the original performance and has led to numerous landmark releases on SACD by some of the worlds finest performers.